Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Hairstreaks and mystery wildflower

Sunday afternoon I was walking along our road. We have lots of White Milkweed growing wild along the road, more than I have seen elsewhere. Happened to find this Juniper Hairstreak on an Ox-eyed Daisy, done that photo many times before. Then it moved to the White Milkweed and stuck to it like glue and allowed many photos. Got to love these dime sized hairstreaks!

Here the Juniper Hairstreak is joined by a longhorn beetle. The flower head here to give you prospective is maybe 2 inches across.
Along our driveway I found tow male Banded Hairstreaks fighting over perching rights on these leaves. They are single brood hairstreaks and you can only find them for 3-4 weeks every year, a delight to find.
I found a handful of these flowers growing in the woods where they logged out some of the Lobolly pines and oaks. Can't recall seeing this 3-4 foot tall wildflower before anybody know what it is?
Below is our newest snake a Northern Watersnake, Nerodia sipedonit  just over 2 foot long. It spent all of Sunday perched on that limb in the pond. As you can see the pond is over run with waterlilies.

19 comments:

Bonnie K said...

Wow you take the best butterfly photos! I also love the sunning snake. Thanks for sharing such great photography. Now I know who to go to when I cannot identify a butterfly. Thanks for swinging by the porch.

Carol said...

Oh, Randy I have never seen white Milkweed! Funny you would think it would be the natural color. Gorgeous shot of the Juniper Hairstreak! I have never seen that beauty either. I think that the wildflower might be related to Verbascum ?? I have some growing here but cannot think of the name right now. With all the days and days of rain we have had . . . I worry we will not get any Monarchs this year, as a previous year when rain lasted for weeks. Today the sun is shinning! Lovely post!

Janet, The Queen of Seaford said...

Hi Randy, was hoping I could help you out with the plant ID as you have assisted me so many times...but alas, no, I have no idea what your lovely bloom might be.
Your butterflies photos are incredible.

ann said...

You live in a virtual paradise. Oddly, I like the picture of the snake, though I am not a fan of snakes, this is a great photo.

tina said...

No idea on the wildflower but I'll try to check it in my book. Lovely snake. I do like them here as I'm hoping they eat all the voles.

sweetbay said...

Carol is right, your mystery flower is a Verbascum. White Mullen, V. lychnitis.

Gorgeous pictures of the butterflies!

Karen said...

Randy, I'm running behind on blog reading, but played catch up with yours this morning. Wow, you have a lot going on. The bees are fascinating and you're very brave for though I love the idea of bees, I wouldn't be courageous enough to take care of them. Amazing photos for being one-handed while handling them.

The butterflies are also amazing, that dragonfly is incredible and I see where it got the name from.

The snakes would make me jittery, but I guess if I knew they weren't poisonous they'd be great to have in the garden. I also love the tiny little turtle photo. So much going on in your garden.

Ginger said...

that snake gives me the heebie jeebies!

Beth at PlantPostings said...

The colors on the Juniper Hairstreak are fascinating! I don't know that we have them here, but I'll watch for them now. Nice post!

Carol said...

Randy, Please would you look again. I am freaked out now. I thought worrying about deer ticks was enough. It has a red body and I did not see any BW spiders that had that. It did not seem as large either . . . or as creepy. I sure hope it is not that. Were you thinking it was a young one? Is there a good site you recommend? I just noticed your Saturday Bugs post! Wow!!

Curbstone Valley Farm said...

I love your butterfly photos. I'm usually doing well to get half that close. I could have used your butterfly expertise in our vegetable garden today. Found what looks like a Lorquin's admiral on our tomatoes, but it had some extra orange spots on the hindwing. Going to have to brush up on my butterflies. I'd never seen this one here before. I must say, that watersnake looks very at home on that branch. I hope he's a friendly fellow!

Les said...

We get several Northern Water snakes in our ponds as work. Some of my less tolerant co-workers are always ready to grab a spade to decapitate them. They figure if it is in the water it must be a Water Moccasin. I am on a one man re-education mission.

Chandramouli S said...

Lovely butterfly shots. Looks cute - it's huge black eyes. Sorry, I am of no help with identifying the flower.

L. Ambler said...

Great butterfly photos! Don't know how you get that close. Loved the photo of the turtle.

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